Overview

The purpose of the Learning Agreement is for you to create learning objectives and goals, for the internship semester, so you and your supervisors have a clear plan in mind. The agreement is a digitally signed document, that you complete and sign, which will then be sent to your supervisors for signatures and comments.  After you complete your portion it will be sent to your internship site supervisor (the primary mentor at your internship) and finally to your faculty supervisor (usually the instructor of your internship course).  To help you in creating learning objectives, we have included a document, "How to Write Learning Objectives". You can find it in the Reference Instructions below the video.

Video Instructions

Reference Instructions

  1. Create or Sign-In to an Adobe Sign Account: For the best experience, we recommend creating an Adobe Sign account. It is free. This will provide you with more options after you have completed your portion of the agreement. If you are creating a new account, we recommend using your UVU email address, but if you have an existing Adobe Sign account under another email account (or you experience any access issues when using your UVU email), you are welcome to use that instead.
  2. Starting the Agreement After clicking the 'Start Learning Agreement' agreement link below you will be taken to a digital document. The primary purpose of the agreement is to guide you in writing objectives that can be well-measured. Complete all requested fields for your section.  KEEP THIS PAGE OPEN WHILE YOU FILL OUT THE AGREEMENT TO ENSURE YOU ARE COMPLETING  IT  CORRECTLY.  
  3. Emails: You will then need to use the email addresses you already gathered to assign other participants. Again, it is very important that you enter the names and exact email addresses for your internship site supervisor (as Participant 2) and your faculty supervisor/course instructor (as Participant 3), otherwise your agreement may not be delivered. Please see the Useful Definitions section at the bottom of this page if you are unsure about who your supervisors are. Do not add extra characters or spaces to the email areas.
  4. Learning Objectives: There are six sections for outlining your objectives, but only four are required. Please check your course instructions to determine if more than four objectives are required for your course. To help you get started with the concept of learning objectives, consider an example... For your first objective, you want to describe how you will conduct data analysis for company x. Instead of saying something like, I will do data analysis for company x, you should break that statement down into something more specific and measurable such as, "I will effectively use Python and SQL to conduct a sentiment analysis on company x's Twitter posts". Within each objective there is also a section to add measurements and timeframes to your objectives. For the measurements section, and using my previous example, you could say something like, "I will create infographics and a summary of my findings which I will present to my site supervisor." The timeframe is when you expect to have this objective completed. You can access the document here: How to Write Learning Objectives
  5. Dates and Fields: The internship start and end date describes the start and end time of your internship. It is fairly straightforward if your dates fall within the semester of your internship.. Sometimes however, students have different situations.. For example, if you are using the agreement for a current job, you will want to use your original hire date as your start date. As a side note, the learning agreement is especially important if you are using your job as an internship. This is because using objectives to work on new projects and goals within your existing job, gives you an opportunity to explore projects and tasks related to your major and build upon your skill set. Another situation is if you have an internship that will last beyond the duration of the semester. if you know your internship end date, use that date regardless of the semester, but if you have no formal end date to your internship, simply provide the end of the semester as your end date. A last comment on dates. The agreement only accepts certain date formats so if you are getting an error on any question, please read the error message. Typing extra spaces into some fields or adding too much text can cause an error.
  6. Required Sections: You can ignore the Addenda/Comments section. This is for your supervisor's in case they want to add comments or propose modifications to the agreement.. Because this is a signed agreement, however, no participants can edit specific fields in the agreement after signing. This is why the Addenda/Comments section is provided for your supervisors. Because the site supervisor is the first one you send it to, when it is the faculty supervisor's turn to sign, they can review any modifications that were suggested by you and your site supervisor, add their own comments, and state if they agree to the terms of the agreement.
  7. Signatures and Email Delivery: After completing your portion of the agreement and if all required fields are completed, you will provide your digital signature by inputing your name in the signature area and selecting "Click to Sign". You will then need to assign other participants. Again, it is very important that you enter the name and email addresses for your internship site supervisor (Participant 2) and your faculty supervisor/course instructor (Participant 3). In the case of your faculty supervisor, if you need to search for a UVU email address, you can use the UVU Directory. After searching for an individual in the directory, click on their name to view the email address. You must enter the EXACT and CORRECT email addresses with no other information in the text box otherwise your agreement will not be delivered. Lastly, you will be asked to enter your email address. Please enter the same email associated with your Adobe account. You are also welcome to add a message to each participant, but this is optional.
  8. Final Steps: After signing the agreement, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your email address. After confirming, a sign in option (which also works for creating an account) will be available in the top-right corner of the confirmation page.  After signing the agreement, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your email address.&
  9. Waiting Period Having an Adobe account will give you the ability to observe the status of your agreement and utilize the Activity dropdown to see if your agreement was successfully sent to the current signer. Having an account also gives you the option to download a pdf version of the agreement, after all participants have signed. You will also be notified by email when the agreement is completed. Please wait at least seven to ten days for your agreement to be fully processed. Occasionally organizations will have email SPAM settings which prevent delivery, and your supervisor may only receive the request after a reminder email is generated from the Adobe System. PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT MORE THAN ONE AGREEMENT UNLESS YOU NEED TO MAKE A CHANGE TO THE AGREEMENT OR YOU ARE PERFORMING MORE THAN ONE INTERNSHIP. Use the Support Request below if you are experiencing a delivery issue.
  10. Support: The Support Request is not a requirement for this assignment, so only use this if your site supervisor is experiencing email delivery issues. This support form will also be available for your supervisor evaluation assignment that you will initiate near the conclusion of the semester, as that assignment also requires you to generate an email request. An important note, please do not contact your course instructor for email delivery issues. This is what the Support Form is used for.

support request

Assignment Submission: When all signing participants have completed their portion of the agreement, everyone will receive an email with a link to the finalized agreement. From here you can download a pdf version.  Check your assignment instructions, but you likely will be asked to upload the document and submit the pdf as an assignment.

Common Questions

How do I access the agreement after I sign? Login to your Adobe Sign account and click on the 'Manage' tab. From there you can find your agreement. After clicking on it, you will see an option to download a pdf copy of the agreement.

My site supervisor and/or faculty supervisor cannot locate the agreement in their email inbox? If after three to five business days your supervisor hasn't received a notification to complete the agreement, you may want to consider asking them to provide you an alternate email address to use.   You can then submit this updated email address in a Support Request and an Internship Services representative will adjust the email on your agreement, so it can be sent to the alternate address.

I have been informed that I put an incorrect email into one of the participant fields.  How can this be edited? Please complete this Support Request and an Internship Services represenative will adjust the email on your agreement, so it can be sent to the alternate address.

What if content needs to be edited in the agreement? While signers of the agreement cannot go backwards in the signing chain to edit responses, there is a Notes/Addendum section which can be used by site supervisors and faculty supervisors.  This is a good place to document any MINOR changes or comments without the need to start a new agreement.  Please note, however, if there are significant corrections (e.g. a change of internship provider or extensive change in learning objectives) students will need to start a new agreement.

I have heard that a Master Internship Agreement needs to be completed by my internship provider. Is this the Master Internship Agreement? No. Master Internship Agreements are processed by the Internship Services office using the information you provide in your Internship Application.

I did not access this page from my Canvas course. I am not sure if I should complete this agreement? Some agreements vary by department, please ensure that this is a requirement for your internship course, prior to starting the agreement.

Useful Definitions

Internship Provider: The internship provider is the organization that is hosting the student for the internship experience. Frequently this is an external organization outside of Utah Valley University. Occasionally this is a campus department or sponsored program.

Site Supervisor: The site supervisor is the individual at the internship site who will be the primary mentor for the internship experience. They provide leadership, assign tasks, and guide the intern. They also help the student complete course requirements, including but not limited to, assisting the student with learning objectives, verifying work hours, and completing an evaluation of the intern’s performance. Occasionally the site supervisor is a UVU staff/faculty member, but only in cases where the student is doing an internship directly with a UVU department or sponsored program.

Faculty Supervisor/Course Instructor : Most often the faculty supervisor is the professor/instructor overseeing the UVU internship course for which a student is enrolled. The faculty supervisor is in direct contact with the student throughout the semester and oversees assignments and projects assigned during the duration of the internship period. While uncommon, periodically the faculty supervisor is a different individual than the course instructor. Students should check with their course instructor if they are unsure.

Internship Coordinator Assists the student prior to the internship experience through advisement, providing resources, and internship course registration. In most cases an Internship Coordinator is not a student's faculty supervisor and therefore rarely signs this agreement.

 
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